Romania – July 13, 2023

Angles and Cuts

As you heard in yesterday’s blog entry, we had a gully washer Wednesday evening that covered the work site in Tinca as well. When we arrived in the Roma community at the work site, there was a good bit of mud we had to navigate. So the first job for our newest team members (Peter and Ana’s grandsons: Lucas and James) was to dig some trenches to let the water drain more quickly. They were helped in their efforts by Graham.

We got started working on putting up the plywood for the interior walls and ceiling which required building a couple simple jigs to help hold the ceiling pieces in place while they were screwed in. It was nice that we’d finished the roof the day before because we got another rain shower in the morning that required moving gear and wood under cover. We got most of the interior of the house walls covered, but it turned out to take longer than expected, as pretty much each board had to be custom fit. There was enough work on the house that a few of us kept working through experiment time, craft time and game time. There is still more to do tomorrow so it will be another early departure.

For the experiment, Becky had an object lesson showing how when we sin it makes us all dirty inside but then the blood of Jesus cleanses us and makes us clean. It’s a very cool experiment and the kids loved it. For craft, the kids decorated crosses to help them remember the object lesson regarding Jesus and what he has done for us.

Regardless of all of Jamal’s planning to teach the kids lots of games… each day has pretty much been soccer, soccer, soccer. But they are having fun and being loved on which is what matters.

As we were leaving a backhoe came by digging out the ditch that had filled in over the years so we should have no more problems with water runoff:)

As I reflect on the trip so far, one thing that has stood out is the unimportance of “stuff” which reminds me of one of my favorite verse phrases: “a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” Luke 12:15b

~George for the Romania team